Dwyane Wade, Carmelo Anthony Spoke to LeBron James, Stephen A. Smith After Viral Video

NBA legends Dwyane Wade and Carmelo Anthony revealed this week that they spoke separately to Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James and ESPN personality Stephen A. Smith about the viral confrontation they had last week.

Prior to the Lakers' 113-109 overtime win over the Knicks, James was seen having an animated conversation with Smith:

Smith later divulged on his podcast that the situation was related to LeBron's son and teammate, Bronny James, noting that LeBron said, "Stop f--ing with my son."

Speaking Friday on Melo's 7PM in Brooklyn podcast, both D-Wade and Anthony shed some additional light on the issues between LeBron and Smith based on discussions they had with them.

Beginning at the 8:56 mark of the podcast, Wade gave some insight into a text conversation he had with Smith.

Wade, who was James' teammate with both the Miami Heat and Cleveland Cavaliers, said he told Smith he understood why LeBron reacted the way he did, and he also indicated to Smith that James approaching him was a sign of respect:

"I told [Stephen A.] as a father, I'm walking up on you. I get it. I'm like that too. I'm at you. ... We've never seen LeBron do that. LeBron don't even go back at players that foul him too hard on the court. He's always been just even-keel and levelheaded in every aspect, and sometimes you want him to jump, sometimes you want him to go and he won't. So to watch him on that bench and see Stephen A. over there, he couldn't take it… It was burning him.

"... But I told [Stephen A.], I think the one thing is, and first of all, I take it as that's a sign of respect that LeBron did that to you. And I told him, your microphone is the loudest, your platform is the biggest, and also you're a Black man. So you got to understand where he's coming from with that. If he even approached you—because the Skip Baylesses of the world and all these guys have said things about him his entire career and he's been above it. He stayed quiet and did his thing, so that meant something. That's respect right there for everything you've built. We know Stephen A. from when he was on the come up. But also too, it's a touchy situation because we've never seen this before when it comes to son and father [in the NBA]."

Anthony, who had a short stint as James' teammate with the Lakers and played alongside him multiple times at the Olympics, said he spoke to LeBron recently about what occurred.

Melo suggested at the 27:52 mark that James' message was that he will no longer stand for what he feels are slights toward his family, saying:

"I spoke to him. Honestly, 'It's about time.' All caps 'about time,' and it is not just for Stephen A. Smith, it's just people need to see that energy from me. You get what I'm saying? It wasn't about disrespecting. It wasn't about, 'Oh, I'm just going to put my tough pants on now.' Like nah—leave my son out of this. ... It is simple. It's about to be a shift, man. You hear what I'm saying? It is simple. My daughter got to see this, my family got to see this…and I told him, I said, 'About time.'"

Anthony also expressed his belief that James has to be understanding of Bronny receiving criticism since he is an NBA player now, but he indicated that Smith taking shots at Bronny was the "trigger" for LeBron's response, rather than the entire reason:

"This is just Stephen A. doing what he do, what he's supposed to do over the years, bro. LeBron doing what he doing over the years and this is what happens. Some s--t might get misconstrued….but the fact that I think the energy is because we dealing with two juggernauts in their respective fields…LeBron has never spoken on any situation with Stephen A. So if I'm sitting there for 20-plus years and I'm just taking all of this information and all this s--t that you've said to me, about me over the years, now my son is the trigger. No matter what you said about him, that's the trigger. If you ain't saying nothing right, if you ain't standing up for him, that's the trigger whether anybody like it or not."

At the 13:26 mark of the podcast, Melo said things had been bubbling for the past 22 years, adding that there is "no love" in the relationship between James and Smith.

Anthony also praised Smith for his handling of the situation, saying he "understands what this is really about," and knows to "leave it alone."

Even at 40 years of age, LeBron remains one of the best and most dominant players in the NBA, and he is still under the microscope due to his status as an all-time great.

The Lakers' decision to select Bronny in the second round of the 2024 NBA draft drew some criticism and accusations of nepotism. The discussion has only gotten louder as Bronny has struggled to the tune of 1.4 points per game in 18 NBA appearances.

Those critiques figure to continue moving forward if Bronny doesn't show significant improvement, but LeBron may have drawn a proverbial line in the sand to show how he will handle those types of situations moving forward.